Films & Schedules
- OREGON

CITY BABY

DIRECTOR: DAVID F. MORGAN - OREGON (PORTLAND)

(NAR) “This pungent, Portland-set tale features a striking performance by Cora Benesh as Cloey, a 25-year-old aspiring actress facing a turning point in her life. Freewheeling party girl Cloey is comfortably living off her daddy’s (Daniel Baldwin) money, ignoring his entreaties to get a job and pursuing her acting career while living with her aging rocker boyfriend Jesse (Andrew Harris). She’s just landed a role in a new play, as a gay teenage boy. Taking full advantage of its extensive Portland locations—‘I love being damp 250 days a year,’ one character bitterly observes—it also effectively captures the city’s independent rock...

(NAR) “This pungent, Portland-set tale features a striking performance by Cora Benesh as Cloey, a 25-year-old aspiring actress facing a turning point in her life. Freewheeling party girl Cloey is comfortably living off her daddy’s (Daniel Baldwin) money, ignoring his entreaties to get a job and pursuing her acting career while living with her aging rocker boyfriend Jesse (Andrew Harris). She’s just landed a role in a new play, as a gay teenage boy. Taking full advantage of its extensive Portland locations—‘I love being damp 250 days a year,’ one character bitterly observes—it also effectively captures the city’s independent rock scene via performances from several of its notable bands and an amusing cameo by Stephen Malkmus of Pavement.”—The Hollywood Reporter. (98 mins.)

THE FALLS: TESTAMENT OF LOVE

DIRECTOR: JON GARCIA - OREGON (LAKE OSWEGO, OR)

Five years after we left RJ and Chris in THE FALLS (2012 Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival), the ex-lovers who met as Mormon missionaries are living separate and decidedly different lives. In Seattle, RJ is in a relationship as an openly gay man, while Chris is married to a woman in Salt Lake City, where the two are raising their daughter. An unexpected event finds the two young men thrust once again into each other’s lives. As old feelings begin to surface, they face even more difficult choices in their mutual quest for love, freedom, and happiness. (100 mins.)

Five years after we left RJ and Chris in THE FALLS (2012 Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival), the ex-lovers who met as Mormon missionaries are living separate and decidedly different lives. In Seattle, RJ is in a relationship as an openly gay man, while Chris is married to a woman in Salt Lake City, where the two are raising their daughter. An unexpected event finds the two young men thrust once again into each other’s lives. As old feelings begin to surface, they face even more difficult choices in their mutual quest for love, freedom, and happiness. (100 mins.)

HAWAIIAN PUNCH

DIRECTOR: NANDAN RAO - OREGON (CORVALLIS, OR)

(NAR) This unconventional buddy movie follows two young Mormon men on a mission term in Hawaii, who spend their days cliff diving, moped riding, and conversing about relationships and religion. Despite the seeming frivolity of their daily activities, pressures weigh upon them to find wives and become serious men. “Knowingly, HAWAIIAN PUNCH lacks action. In fact, it is the inaction of the film and its protagonists that reveals the fundamental truth in their lives. Instead of spiritual enlightenment, these are two men on the verge of realizing their own stasis. Nick is pursuing romance as a devout Mormon, while Tor...

(NAR) This unconventional buddy movie follows two young Mormon men on a mission term in Hawaii, who spend their days cliff diving, moped riding, and conversing about relationships and religion. Despite the seeming frivolity of their daily activities, pressures weigh upon them to find wives and become serious men. “Knowingly, HAWAIIAN PUNCH lacks action. In fact, it is the inaction of the film and its protagonists that reveals the fundamental truth in their lives. Instead of spiritual enlightenment, these are two men on the verge of realizing their own stasis. Nick is pursuing romance as a devout Mormon, while Tor openly expresses his lack of faith and weighs the value of raising children with or without a spiritual community. Neither seem to reach any fulfillment, but their compelling thread of conversations builds throughout the film.”—Local Sightings Film Festival.(60 mins.)

MANDAROSE

DIRECTOR: GABE VAN LELYVELD - OREGON (PORTLAND)

(NAR) Amanda, isolated and unfulfilled, is the sole provider for and caretaker of her joyful and loving sister, Rose, who has a developmental disability. Rose adores Amanda, but she knows on some level that her sister views her as a burden. Although Amanda takes excellent care of Rose, long-repressed desires for freedom and adventure keep her at an emotional distance. As their already delicate situation worsens, Amanda begins to buckle under the strain, and as a result of her actions, the two sisters find themselves, as well as their understanding of one another, dramatically altered. (54 mins.)

WITH

HEART...

(NAR) Amanda, isolated and unfulfilled, is the sole provider for and caretaker of her joyful and loving sister, Rose, who has a developmental disability. Rose adores Amanda, but she knows on some level that her sister views her as a burden. Although Amanda takes excellent care of Rose, long-repressed desires for freedom and adventure keep her at an emotional distance. As their already delicate situation worsens, Amanda begins to buckle under the strain, and as a result of her actions, the two sisters find themselves, as well as their understanding of one another, dramatically altered. (54 mins.)

WITH

HEART DIRECTOR: STEPHANIE HOUGHPORTLANDBrothers Jonas and Kevin Kierkowzki struggle to navigate their grief over the too-early death of their younger brother. Jonas has become emotionally isolated and cold, while Kevin takes the opposite route, chaotic and sometimes self-destructive. The brothers’ mutual boyfriend, Benjamin, provides stability for them both. (22 mins.)

MMXIII

DIRECTOR: IAN CLARK - OREGON (LAGRANDE, OR)

(DOC) Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012, Ian Clark’s latest work is an observational approach to the documentary film genre, a strategy that marries well with his previous narrative work, notable for its lack of dialogue and desaturated action. MMXIII is an experimental portrait that explores phenomenological subtlety, intersections of construct and vérité, and the ways in which technology, landscape, and beauty coalesce. “Here, an artist’s reflexive gestures investigate moving images and the nature of image construction, blurring the lines between cinema, still photography, and performance art.”—New Orleans Film Society. (77 mins.)

(DOC) Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012, Ian Clark’s latest work is an observational approach to the documentary film genre, a strategy that marries well with his previous narrative work, notable for its lack of dialogue and desaturated action. MMXIII is an experimental portrait that explores phenomenological subtlety, intersections of construct and vérité, and the ways in which technology, landscape, and beauty coalesce. “Here, an artist’s reflexive gestures investigate moving images and the nature of image construction, blurring the lines between cinema, still photography, and performance art.”—New Orleans Film Society. (77 mins.)

THE PERCEPTION OF MOVING TARGETS

DIRECTOR: WESTON CURRIE - OREGON (PORTLAND)

(NAR) “In this haunting feature, Currie stages an intervention into habituated and supposedly natural ways of making meaning onscreen. In collaboration with Grouper, who provides an exquisite musical soundscape, he offers an extremely stimulating experience, as viable as it is unconventional. Divided into four chapters that seemingly involve distinct settings and characters (for example, a young woman running track, an infant taking in visual phenomena), the film depicts these subjects in exquisitely layered aural and visual compositions, handily subverting expected narrative connections along the way. Indeed, searching for a traditional plot is missing the point and the pleasure of this...

(NAR) “In this haunting feature, Currie stages an intervention into habituated and supposedly natural ways of making meaning onscreen. In collaboration with Grouper, who provides an exquisite musical soundscape, he offers an extremely stimulating experience, as viable as it is unconventional. Divided into four chapters that seemingly involve distinct settings and characters (for example, a young woman running track, an infant taking in visual phenomena), the film depicts these subjects in exquisitely layered aural and visual compositions, handily subverting expected narrative connections along the way. Indeed, searching for a traditional plot is missing the point and the pleasure of this film, where ambiguous visual figures and emotionally specific sound cues fairly curl around one another, overturning conventional structures where one usually punctuates the other. The result approaches that realm where the art object seems to breathe with a life of its own, hinting at the beauty and power that is the exclusive province of cinema.”—Sundance Film Festival. (81 mins.)

A PLACE OF TRUTH

DIRECTOR: BARRETT RUDICH - OREGON (PORTLAND)

(DOC) Abigail Mott is a 21-year-old woman traveling from city to city as a nomadic street poet. Inspired by watching a street poet in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, Abi sets up camp on a choice city street corner with chair and typewriter and offers to write a personalized poem on the spot for passersby. They decide the subject matter and the fee they’ll pay, and they leave, generally delighted, with a fresh poem all their own. Eventually, Abi takes her typewriter to Brooklyn and New Orleans, where she finds a like-minded artists’ community and develops a crush on...

(DOC) Abigail Mott is a 21-year-old woman traveling from city to city as a nomadic street poet. Inspired by watching a street poet in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, Abi sets up camp on a choice city street corner with chair and typewriter and offers to write a personalized poem on the spot for passersby. They decide the subject matter and the fee they’ll pay, and they leave, generally delighted, with a fresh poem all their own. Eventually, Abi takes her typewriter to Brooklyn and New Orleans, where she finds a like-minded artists’ community and develops a crush on a fellow poet. As much about poetry as it is about young romantics in the seemingly impenetrable new economy, A PLACE OF TRUTH offers a case study from the 99%. (65 mins.)

WITHTHE DIDIER CONNECTIONDIRECTOR: PENNY ALLENPORTLANDEdited from distressed rushes lost for 37 years, then found in a moldy basement in Portland, this new/old film is about the relationship between Penny, an English teacher, and Didier, a little French boy who has come to spend the summer with his grandmother in Portland. (12 mins.)